Perchance to Dream

In a world crafted from dreams, the God of Sleep reigns supreme

The Marshalls of Iberia (a.k.a. the heroes) return to where their adventures first began, Madeira. After the heroes’ last visit to the city, life and trade, it seems, are coming back to normal, though some things never change. They arrive to find that Silky, the wooden unicorn merchant, is not only selling his wares in the open market but has been made the head of the trade council for his actions during “the occupation”.

The Mangold Affair

Markson returns to the temple of Imperiad to confront Thomas Mangold about the illegal Imperiad artifacts / slave trade. Under some “heated” interrogation, Mangold confessed that he wasn’t the sole party responsible for this. He went on to implicate a man that he and Markson both knew of, Damen Rhinehart who had given his own wife in trade for these Imperiad artifacts.

The Black Cat / Peanut Affair

After their dealings with Thomas Mangold, the heroes, looking for some well earned rest, are stopped by a farmer named Savorh. Savorh goes on to tell the heroes that a mysterious black cat has plagued his peanut farm. The heroes decide to investigate this problem by having Draya and Corrin patrol the fields but the night comes and goes without the slightest incident.
The next day, a hobbit named Hamil comes to Martellus, who is now set up in his cushy new office. The hobbit complains of a large black cat being seen in and around his looms. Martellus is on the job and tells Hamil that he will look into it.
Later on, a human farmer named Jonah comes to Martellus also complaining of a black cat plaguing his date fields. Enough being enough, Martellus formulates a plan to capture this black cat in Jonah’s date field. While patrolling Jonah’s date field, a fire breaks out in Hamil’s looms, apparently caused by a lantern that Hamil had set down and was mysteriously knocked over.
Meanwhile, Sage Strutter, relaxing in his room, has a frightful experience with the “black cat” and is left physically sickened by the encounter. And in light of all the “black cat” sightings, the trade council calls for their regular meeting to be moved up a day early.
After a short time and some heated discussion on the “black cat” issue, an old woman bursts into the meeting, carrying a young boy in her arms, who is completely lifeless. She went to on to say that the boy had encountered the “black cat”. It had bared its fangs at the boy and
he fell sick with fever, which has, in turn, killed him.
Without much hesitation, the old woman to lead them where she had seen the “black cat” disappear…

Into The Sewers (or Enter The Strutter)

The adventurers descend into the sewers along with their new-found companion, Sage Strutter. After winding through the maze of tunnels, they come upon this massive animated water spout blocking their way. Unable to move the stalwart guardian from their path, the party resolves to just go through this obstacle, taking some minor bumps and scrapes from the torrent of water hitting them as they pass through.
With this problem behind them, they find their way to a canvas-covered entryway. In there, they find a bags of salt and two dead bodies. The party comes to the conclusion that someone had been salting Savorh and Jonah’s fields, rendering them useless to plant their respective peanut and date crops.
The party next comes to a chamber where the walls are covered with large slugs. Though sickened by the “black cat’s” magic, Sage conjures some magic of his own and uses the canvas to create a “flying carpet” of sorts to pass by the slug chamber without incident.
After nearly an hour of continuing through the maze of sewer tunnels, they come upon the body of a man that Corrin, Draya, and Markson knew as Passant. As they are inspecting the body for clues of his demise, a large chunk of stone falls onto Draya, pinning her to Passant’s corpse. But this corpse turns out to be more harmful than it first appeared. While pinned to the corpse, Draya began to feel something trying to burrow into her abdomen. A large hookworm coming from Passant’s body started tearing through her armor but caused minimal damage to her, thanks to Sage levitating the stone away and Corrin cutting the worm off of Draya in time. With this over, they decide to burn Passant’s corpse and move on.
Some time after the hookworm encounter, they come to a divergence in the path. But before the party could continue on, they are cornered by 2 large zombie hulks. Sage uses his magic to keep one of the hulking monsters at bay while the rest of the group dispatches the other. In a short time, they manage to destroy the reminaing creature and continue on.
On Sage’s floating canvas, they follow the flow of water to a large vaulted chamber where the water flows into a hole. This is the least of their problems though. About 15 feet up on a platform, they spot what appears to be a lich on one platform and on an opposite platform, two more zombie hulks. Sage levitates the party up slightly above the lich’s level. Between Sage and the lich, they exchange a brief display of magical pyrotechnics.

After the colorful exchange, Sage jumps from the canvas onto the platform. The zombie hulks jump down into the water, which the rest of the party engages. He eventually manages to knock the lich from the platform into the water flow and after a few failed attempts, finally pushes the lich down the hole. One of the zombie hulks is pushed down into the hole, presumably crushing the lich below. The other hulk is dispatched with relative ease and again our intrepid adventurers move forward.
With the lich and zombie hulks behind them, the party comes across some living chambers, which after discovering a journal, appears to be Passant’s. The journal details the previous assault on Iberia. It also makes mention of a red wizard and a plan to attack the city again. Not really gleaning enough information from the journal, Strutter “speaks” with the remains of Passant and discovers that the red wizard mentioned in the journal is, in fact, a woman.
Going on speculation, the adventurers return to the surface to seek out the old woman’s alchemy shop. Upon entering the shop, they encounter a young woman behind the counter, who they discover to be the mother of the dead young boy, Blaise, and also the daughter of the old woman, Mika. They question the young woman as to the whereabouts of her mother. She tells them that her mother had gone away on some business but could not recall where she had gone to. Seeing through this, the party can tell that the young woman is not telling the whole truth. She eventually gives in, showing them a spiral staircase leading down into a closed room below. Halfway down, “something” crosses their path leaving Corrin and Markson sickened in its wake. Upon breaking in the door to the room, the “black cat” attacks them. They, with relative quickness, dispatch the dark feline and proceed to attack Mika. After some time, the party defeats the old woman, at which point she begs and pleads for her life. With her gruesome plot uncovered, her cries go unheeded and she is given the fair, swift justice…

Our intrepid heroes returned to Gamal victorious over the evil monks and made discoveries into the hermit interest in that blighted place. They spoke with Vitruvius informed his of their deeds. Vitruvius learned from the adventurers, that the hermit wanted to use/recruit the Llama for his army and also funded experiments to change normal beings into a monstrous army. They also informed his of Mangold’s involvement with the experimenter. Vitruvius appreciated the information and rewarded the party for their efforts. They received the titles of Marshals of Iberia. Further, he allocated the party 4 dwarven warriors for use in Iberia: Bur, Delp, Darm, Lor, and Skullsnaek(who were sent ahead to Iberia). Vitruvius also let them know about a summons from Four-Trails for the will reading of their “friend” and travel companion Shaador.

Before they set off, Vitruvius extended an invitation to them, to sit in his state room to view a local celebratory concert with him. The show’s headline act featured the musical styling of Sage Strutter and the Unseen Servants; a local and very popular musician with a flare for arcane dramatics. Some of the songs featured were stories about the adventures and their magnificent accomplishments, told with astonishing detail.

Note: Unseen Servants not pictured – in their place an Earth Elemental, cause it looks cool.

A fun and relaxing night was had by all – exception for Markson, who after eating some bad beef, at Grubb’s Good Eats and Sleeps, had a Paragon Case of the runs.

The next day the party flew out of Gamal for Iberia. On there way they stopped in Four-Trails for the reading of Shaador’s Last Will and Testament. The party flew right into mayoral build; Markson made for the bathroom straightaway. They informed the mayor of the new titles, deeds, and their current business in Four-Trails. The mayor was happy to see them again and was pleased to hear that trade relations with Iberia would soon be improving. The party left the office to bed down until the will reading the next day. Markson continued to get dirty looks from the janitors of the town…

The will reading took place in the town center with many on-lookers. The old miser, Millianius the Bleak, slowly made his way to the stage set up for the event. He announced that the party would gain a reward once they performed a certain task. The old miser held up a large red ruby and said they could claims it, if they – KABOOM!!!!! A DEMON APPEARED!

A demon of the large-fiery-grabby-kind blew the stage apart. The monster had friends too, who boiled up out of the sewers, of the undead aura-stacking-kind. The heroes had no trouble vanquishing the demon, but the undead were another story. The mass of undead beings closed on the heroes, their vile nature seemed to compound their effects on the party. A long hard fought battle ensued. In what was an almost fatal confrontation for the heroes, they suffered one causality, Markson, lay knocked-out. He had delivery grievous wounds to his enemy before they got the better of him. He laid, boots soaked in blood, pants filled with waste. The party revived him shortly after the near-miss fight. Only the might of Draya, the heart of Corrin, the wiliness of Martellus, and the special guest-starring of Qsiphoron kept them alive.

The wizard Qsiphoron found a number of interesting items in the remains of the stage (and Millianius the Bleak); among them was a magic ring and fine rapier with a very strong magic aura. Corrin showed great interest in the weapon, but realized that he had no experience with a rapier. Martellus stepped in and said he could use his arcane techniques to imbue Corrin’s favored weapon, a short sword, with the power contained within the rapier. Martellius commandeered J’Vorny’s Armory, a weapon shop in the town square, so he could perform his ritual.

No sooner than Martellius finished the ritual (and Markson finished “cleaning” himself), screams from the local townsfolk alerted them to a new danger. A Demonic ant-like insectoid appeared out of the sewers. They confronted and destroyed the hellspawn expeditiously. The party wasted no time; they dashed down into the sewers to confront the source of the dangers. The stench was immense, even more foul then Markson. Not far into the depth they found more demonic ant-like insectoids and large spider-like creature. Markson one again struck home with a critical shot that crippled his enemy. The heroes dispatched their enemies with gusto, while dodging the dangers of the possibly magically active river of filth.

The team started off things off by meeting back up with Martellus. This came without incident, except for the elf lady running away screaming down the mountainside and 3 ogres beating the crap out of Martellus. Luckily, the nearly fresh adventurer did not, after considerable deliberation, take a long rest, but instead chose to go after Daryl, evil experimenter. On the way, they noticed Martellus being hammered and thought that killing the ogres with the best choice of action.

Once the greeting and thank-yous were exchange the party ventured once more into Daryl’s Lair. They first questioned the sinister-looking teifling, receiving no enlightenment they continued downward. In the depths, they found Daryl’s laboratory. Daryl saw Markson and remarked that he had met with another servant of Imperiad before and exchanged gifts for a slave woman. The team took exception to Bert’s work and readily for a fight.

Daryl had two “friends” with him, Bob and Jim. Bob was a large blob of fat monstrosity; conversely, Jim was a rail-thin spiney boney monstrosity. Daryl rained down spells and the two monstrosities tried put the beat-down on our heroes. They would have none of it. Draya went full-berserker on Daryl hewing him dead. The crew left Bob mince-meat and Jim a bone-pile. Everyone rejoined and looted the hell out of the place. They even discovered a secret storeroom. Gear, weapons, components, and rituals were the spoils of the day. Also, their was a large golden statue to the God Imperiad. Markson felt it was important to return the relic to the nearest temple in Gamal.

At the nearest temple, they found Markson school rival and all-around fat jerk, Mangold. Mangold took the artifact and acted shifty about his knowledge of it’s recent history. The party had a gut feeling that Mangold was the one who delivered it to Daryl, but couldn’t prove it. Martellus got the item to have Corrin use his hat of disguise to made the face of Mangold, then to cast the ritual speak with dead to ask the corpse of Daryl, whether the person who brought the artifact to him looked like Mangold. The spell was cast, the questioned asked, Mangold fated was sealed. The corpse confirmed that Mangold brought him the artifact. Markson and the rest of the party will make Mangold pay, but after they finish the current job.

After make short work of Daryl, they adventure decided it was time to get back to gathering the artifacts needed for the combat against the Lama. After re-examining the tapestries and recanting the story, they made their way to the ruined temple. The front room contained seven alcoves, each with a symbol on the floor: Dragon, Crane, Tiger, Indigo, Ellipsoid, Daryl Strawberry, and Human. The inter-chamber contained a dead-look priest and an alter with each of the 7 symbols on it too. Upon investigation of the corpse, it seemed like a match for the priest-dude in the tapestries. Markson found a holy symbol in the pocket of the dead man. When the holy symbol was touched, the dead man started to stir. The party decided caution was needed. They prudently took the multiple heavy doors and crushed the corpse underneath. By pinning the dead guy they had and easy time retrieving the object. They all had a good laugh at the dead man flailing around trying to free himself from the heavy doors to no avail.

Their attention moved on to the alter. They found that the symbols on the alter could pressed down and there was a seam that ran through the alter. Sensing that the alter could be opened, they went on a button mashing spree until the combo of crane and human opened the alter. Just as it started to open, the old alter got stuck. Luckily, Corrin found the obstruction, freeing the alter open and reveal it’s prize. The party retrieved the item from the alter, a scroll that seemingly can be used in confronting the Lama

Still, the adventures had not had enough adventure, they journeyed onward and upward. The mountaintop complex had a long path lead to the next tier. Blades! Multiple wrring blades sprung to life biting at the team as they weaved their way along the narrow path. Everyone dodged, jumped over, climbed around, teleported through the nasty devices cleverly, except the hapless wizard. The weakling that he was, he had to be drag around the cliff-side by dauntless Draya.

Killer Weeds! At the top of the path lay a wall covered in vine. The team tried subtle method of avoiding the semi-intelligent looking plants, but found the best solution was unbridled radiant violence. The party found that radiant weapons had a tremendous ability to destroy the plant. Markson and Martellus used their radiant weapons and killed the crap out of it, cutting a path to the next level.

A stone building lay in front of the party, the symbol of the mage from the tapestries etched above the door. Markson tried to open the door and set off a trap. A evil spirit-thing erupted from the door and battled the party. Corrin acted quickly and found the switches and disabled the device. Inside the large building was a single figure, the mage from the tapestries. The Mage acted first, he flew up into air and knocking half the party backwards and prone on the floor. Everyone realized this first was gonna suck. The Mage proceeded to mop the floor with the party until the team got their tactical hats on. The flying enemy was impossible for Draya and Markson to hit. In a fit of madness, Markson decided to climb the walls, then walk the rafters, and jump down tackling the Mage. Then the wizards cast stinking cloud up in the air, which had no damaging effect on the Mage, but blind him, causing him to come down to ground level, below the cloud, to fight it out. Finally, Draya cranged the Mage, pinning him to the ground for the rest of the combat. Undeterred by the progress on the ground the team had made, Markson made his Jimmy the Superfly Snuka move off the rafters, sailing through the poisonous stinking cloud and flawlessly crashing into the ground and missing the Mage. Once pinned to the ground, the team made short work of the Mage, killing him and looting his items.

Martellus returned to Gamal with the prisoners. He explained to Vitruvius what the party had discovered at the Zongxian shrine complex. Vitruvius sent to Martellus to Iberia to check on matters there. In his place, he sent the Wizard, Q’sepheron to help the party at the shrine. Q’sepheron flew to Hazel Mountains on the ritual mount courtesy of Martellus. He arrived at the shrine complex and the well rested party re-entered the complex.

The party chose to enter the ruins of a large building with the statues of two genderless humanoids facing each other forming a gateway. As they approached the statues they noticed stairs leading down a tunnel beneath the ruins. As they reached the bottom of the stairs they entered a well appointed chamber, before them a black silk curtain with the image of silver figures engaged in unarmed combat weaved into the fabric. Corrin heard a swooshing sound from behind the curtain, and venture a peek. He saw a martial arts training room complete with pits, balance beam planks, swinging knock down blocks of wood and huge spiked knockdown balls, platforms, and, oh yeah three undead monks guarding the place.

Markson become particularly intrigued by this challenge and storms into the room and jumps across one of the pits. Battle ensues. The rest of the party joins the fun. Q’sepheron proves his salt keeping one of the monks out of the battle for most of the fights by slowing him with Ray of Frost. The party endures a tough, tough battle…many times being tossed by one of the monks into the obstacles provided by the training room. But eventually, the party is victorious.

The party sets about creating much safer passage over the pits. A voice booms from someone calling himself the Grandmaster. Challenging them to a much more dangerous challenge. The party first decides to check out two other chambers…they find one ransacked sleeping area, and another room that appears to be just for storing scrolls. Then mosy on over to the Grandmaster’s dojo. He is intent to taunt the party. Markson tries to talk him up some, but the Grandmaster doesn’t seem to up on goings on at the shrine. Q’sepheron tries to talk him into letting them loot some of the scrolls, but the Grandmaster is having none of it. The G’master does seem intent on taunting Corrin, who is disguised as the Hermit. Evidently the Hermit had already paid a visit to the Grandmaster with some of his minions and left with his tail between his legs. Q’sepheron grows tired of the talking and casts a wall of fire around the G’man. A well singed Grandmaster emerges from the fire. And battle ensues…and the Grandmaster won’t be talking a good game any longer, as he continually is pushed back into the wall of fire. Fried to death, his body vanishes…behind he leaves a hexagonal slab of marble and his quarterstaff.

The party handed over Broxton to Vitruvius and told him of the plan that Broxton had to destroy him.

Vitruvius asked the party if they knew what powers “the hermit” had. The party told Vitruvius that the Hermit was a wizard.

Vitruvius told the party of an ancient sect of monks located in the Hazel Mts. just south of Gamal. These monks had belonged to the “Shrine of Zongxian”. This shrine did not worship any particular god, they had respect for knowledge, wisdom, and were trained in the martial arts.

Something corrupted their Lama. The corruption was contained in the immediate area of the shrine. It is said that the Hermit has taken a great interest in this shrine and actually visited the shrine himself or sent someone to visit it.

Viturvius sent a dwarven militia, headed up by, Gala, a female dwarf, to investigate what was happening and see if they could locate the Hermit. It has been an month since they were dispatched by Vitruvius and have yet to return.

Vitruvius tells the party that the Shrine is located in an impassable area where bandits and raiders dwell to pray on all who dare venture that way. Draya and Corrin recall hearing about the Shrine that attracted students from all over. This Shrine is believed to be a “mystical realm”.

It is said that before there was a “skizm” among the followers , the Lama became too arrogant and the followers came to question his ability to lead them. It is said that the Lama and his followers are still trapped in the Shrine on a plateau in the Hazel Mts.

The Lama is an immortal being that takes a humanoid form. Not sure how he became immortal, perhaps a long liniage of Lama’s that are voted in and they continue to take over each other”s body. It is unknown as to what has corrupted the Lama and there are very few monks left outside of the Shrine. They are scattered all about and keep to themselves.

Corrin goes to his “contacts” and they do not know od any monks about, but they have heard of the Shrine. They tell Corrin that it is an evil place where beings become cursed or their abilities are weakened once they enter the Shrine.

Viturvius tells wants the party to find the dwarven party he sent a month ago and to see why the Hermit would have an interest in the Shrine. He tells them it is about a days journey, but to beware of the bandits along the way.

Martellis excuses himself to the roof and begins to chant. He casts, “Eagles Flight”, where eight giant spirits are summoned to take the party to the Shrine in the Hazel Mts. Martellis summons a great golden griffon, Corrin a pegasus, Draya a golden dragon, Markson an imperial griffon.

The party makes a pass over the city and onward to the Hazel Mts.

Around mid-afternoon, the party approaches the Hazel Mts. There is a smokey, yellowish fog surrounding the mountains. The party takes flight over the mountains and see the plateau where the Shrine is located. The party sees that most of the buildings are in ruin and there is a path that winds up to the Shrine on the plateau. AS they are flying over the Shrine, their spirits all begin to experience “turbulence” dues to the shroud of darkness surrounding the area.
It passes and the spirits land their party members safely on the path leading up to the Shrine.

The party begins to make their way up the winding path to the ruins atop the mountain plateau. The party makes it up to two huge towers. They notice the gatehouse has been somewhat renovated and that someone has made the gateway larger. Draya and Markson march up to the broken archway and see two large-size figures mulling about in the gatehouse. It looks like these two large figure are carrying javelins. Draya and Markson see that these two creepers are Ogres. The party attacks the two vermin. One of the Ogres disappears from sight. As the fight with the one ogre continues, another Ogre with a horned viking type hat appears. The party encounters three Ogres who are very determined to stop them. As the attacks continue, some of the members begin to feel that their attack moves are just not dealing the amount of damage that they should be.

The party defeats the Ogres and some healing is need on “the tank” as the horned hat Ogre took a special liking to her. The party investigate the Ogre gatehouse and find it to be very disgusting. They search the dead Ogres and find 5 small cut diamonds, gold pieces, and javelins. Draya decides that the horned hat that her bad-ass buddy had on, would make her look goods so she takes it.

The party venture into the Shrine complex to investigate. Corrin hears a door open and turns to see what it is. It looks like humans who are very pale and have dark circles under their eyes. They are not shooting “THRILLER” here, so they must be undead monks of the shrine.

As the undead monks check out out our party members, the party quickly moves behind a broken part in the stone wall surrounding the Shrine. The undead monks are packing scimitars adn are ready to par-tay.

Draya hurls some dragon breath at them and toasts all three of the undead monks. Martellis lands an attack as well. The enemy attacks from the brick building across the way from the wall via arrows. The arrows miss our party.

The undead monks attack the party behind the wall…again our blows are not landing as hard as they should be. We defeat the undead monks and make our way to the brick barracks. Corrin, Markson, and Martellis enter the barracks. They defeat the arrow spewing undead monks inside.

The party searches the barracks and find nothing but living quarters.

The party searches around and see better looking buildings around. They see a courtyard with a well. As the party walks through the courtyard, Draya, Martellis, and Corrin hear music coming from inside one of the buildings. Markson does not and trys to stop Draya, Martellis and Corrin continue to head to the building. Markson lets Draya go and goes up to the door of the building and trys to barricade the doors of this builing. Markson does not know what is goingb on and why his friends are so intent on entering this building.

Martellis, Draya, and Corrin are about to burst through the doors when Markson charges into the room and sees a very prestine looking room. White walls, tapestries, desk, etc are all in the room. Markson sees a book in a glass display case. He breaks the glass and takes the book out. He cannot read the what is printed on the book’s cover. Martellis, Dray, and Corrin are about to touch the book, when Markson runs away from them, outside the of the towers. They chase Markson outside of the walls of the Shrine. Martellis, Draya, and Corrin are fine now. Markson tells them that they entranced by the book.

Markson learns that the book has some kind of magical powers. The book makes him feel good as he is holding it in his hands. Markson decides to take the book back into the gates to see what will happen. Nothing. He enters the courtyard. Nothing. He brings the book back into the building and nothing. The rest of the party follows him and look around the building. They look at the tapestries and see what seems to be the Lama standing over a map of very different lands.

While looking at this, the floor begins to rumble and a bullit ascends from below.

The adventurers discover two dead shadar-kai that had been guarding this side of the pass, evidently killed by packs of kobolds. With fortune favoring the brave, they reach Gamal unharmed.

Gamal

As our heroes approach the city, the great spires of Gamal rise above them. Inside, they are met by every form of hustle and bustle of a busy city, passing the dwarven garrison encamped beyond the city gates.

Muther’s [Inn and Tavern]

Our heroes take in a short rest and refreshments before setting out into the city. Fein finds his usual entertainment of “daggers”, eschewing the normal rules and throwing a hand axe instead. Corrin speaks a man named with Drexel at the bar. He presents himself a “friend” (of the Graycloaks). Drexel requests Corrin’s presence at a Graycloak meeting at nightfall.

Commons (Temple of Imperiad) – Daytime

The adventurers deliver Brother Thomas to the safety, though Crestview was to be his intended destination. Markson also meets up with a fellow brother of the cloth, a dwarf named Hoseo. Corrin reports of his findings in Crestview.

Commons (Beneath the Temple) – Nighttime

Corrin arrives as requested and enters the Graycloak secret meeting. He is met by several members, including the Gamal cell leader, Blake. He presents the head of Shade and the Blackheart emblem to the Graycloaks. He is also made aware of a Graycloak spy (“Bad” Ian DeYoung) within the Blackheart ranks. Corrin is given the rank of Quickblade.

Arts District (Woosley Mansion)

Corrin with his trusty hat of disguise, takes on the guise of a well to-do art afficianado) goes to speak with Baron Woosley. Arriving at his door, he’s greeted by Agador, the Baron’s man-servant. Agador humbly leads Corrin through the lavishly well decorated mansion. Finally, he is graciously greeted by Baron Woosley himself. Corrin pretends to be genuinely interested in the Baron’s art but subtly leads the conversation towards Woosley’s thoughts on Vitruvius. He finds out that Baron of the Common District, Prad “the Glum” is also a supporter of Vitruvius.

Magic District

It’s discovered that a man named Martellius has offered to make magical items for another man named Lucas. This plan was put to an end in the basement of Muther’s.

Palace – Nighttime

Not gaining the magical item they were after, the Blackhearts still intent on destroying the palace with Vitruvius in it, roll a flaming cart towards the main entrance. Our heroes were able to stifle the fire with minimal damage to the building itself. Thus, foiling the Blackheart’s assassination attempt on Vitruvius.

Side Notes

Corrin discovers that Brother Hoseo is a member in good standing of the Graycloaks in Gamal.

The adventures made their way to a familiar face who recently came to Iberia, Mangold. Lounging in a tavern (go figure). He had designs that a new temple will be build for Imperiad in Crestview, in what is Founder Nealaini’s palace. (She didn’t like this idea.) He with his two trusty dwarf slaves wanted the party to take him there safely, for 1800 gold. The Founder, wanted us tto rid Crestview of the evils there. So the party was set on going to Crestview. First though, the group spoke to the Nightingales. This would be the finial meeting with Helm LaVon. Future action will go through normal priest channels. Also, the Palantin was given to the Nightingales to hold. A Dwarf Warrior named Merric needed to see General Vatruvius in Gamal. We agreed to head there after cleaning out Crestview.

On the Mountain Road to Crestview – The party was jumped by thugs – 13 bandits, 1 Evistro, and 4 Mages. After triping and falling several times, the party nobly beat most of them to death. Thomas Mangold casually one-shotted an enemy that the party had worked over for some time, credit credit where it was not due. The party found out that the bandits served a man named Dread Lockstone, who had control of Crestview and serves “the hermit”.

Side Note: The dwarven slavery issue was solved by Fein. Who decided to burn Mangold’s cart which he had the dwarfs carry him in. Also, Fein decided to pound Mangold with a radiant magic punch. This caused some strife between the party. The fight was broken up by Markson, who was forced to side with Thomas, to his great displeasure.

Arrive at Creatview- Was a big mistake in scale of the enemy the party faced. Corrin decided to disguise himself as “the hermit”. He bravely went in to recon, alone. The town was crawl with Shader-Kai and Mages. He went to the Palace to visit Dread Lockstone. The man told Corrin that the army was readying for their next attack. Corrin left after obtaining this information, passing through the city without interruption, masked as the fearsome and mysterious hermit.

The party decided that they were out-numbered too badly, so they took to the road to Gamal to meet the Army General Vatruvius.

In need of rest after a difficult battle the party sets up camp in the room with the giant medusa head. The hours pass by and it appears that the rest will be an uneventful one – but during the last watch of the night Markson hears a group coming down the stairs into the chamber. He awakes his comrades and they plan an ambush at the base of their stairs.
A cultist appears dragging a Halfling behind him in ropes. The party is ready for him and is able to dispatch of the cultist before he is able to utter any cry. The prisoner is freed and it turns out to be none other than Daisy.

Daisy and Corrin reunite and exchange stories of their adventures. Corrin is also aggressively questioned about why he allowed Dailia to get stabbed during their trek to Discordia.
The party decides to continue though the hallway, and as Corrin is picking the lock to the door he hears chanting from down the way.

Corrin managed to unlock the door and the team finds themselves facing a room with 4 stone gorgon statues. Fein uses his familiar to scout the room, but it is destroyed by a magical spike. The party decides that foolishness is the best part of valor and charges across the room blindly. They make it across, but suffer a significant amount of damage from the traps. They jig up a rope across the room for Dailia and Nalania to climb across. The rope holds, but both of the women are unable to make the climb in their weakened state. Dalia is able to escape the room unharmed, but Nalina takes a serious wound from a trap and must be rescued by Markson who takes even more damage.

The chanting has grown vary loud by this point, but the team decides that they should still take a quick rest to lick their wounds.

Once they had caught their breath they charged into the room with the chanting. In this room they found an assortment of devils and cultists – battle was joined post haste!
Draya and Markson held the line, squaring off against the bearded devils, while Fein and Corrin turned their attention to the cultists. The cultists were protected by a powerful magic and seemed immune to all harm, pissing Fein off to no end.

Fein eventually discovered that they were protected by a spell which was focused in a bowl of blood, and after he toppled the bowl he was able to kill the cultists with great bravado. One he and Corrin finished wiping up the cultists they rejoined Draya and Markson and were able to dispatch of the remainder of the devils.

They are then treated to a vision from what can only be the snakewhore, condemning them all to a horrible horrible death just as soon as she can get around to it.

After defeating the Medusa at the cost of Fein being turned to stone, an old friend showed up, Lord Ord. Summon by the Feywild to help his sworn friends in a time of need, he appear before the party, rolling in to the room- flung across the void from another world.

Shortly there after, the Party decided to behead the medusa witch, and take the foul creature crown as a trophy/weapon. Draya volunteered. When she struck her blow, she was instantly turned to stone. Brave, but foolish Lord Ord pick-up the head and placed it into a bag, with a flap – converting the medusa’s head in a sack into a make-shift “Bull’s-eye Lantern of Gorgon Power”. So, down two party members, plus one old friend and a “statue-maker-in-a-bag”, they continued on.

Upon leaving the temple the party saw a Gazebo of Doom, where a number of nasty devils and humans were congregating. The party engaged them in mortal combat. The battle began with Corrin sneaking around to close the distance and get a better look. Next Lord Ord moved in and raised the Medusa head at some baddies and smote their ruin upon the gazebo steps. Short there after, Corrin was transformed by Lord Ord into a Demonic Empowered Super-being; waging battle on the enemies with all the fury of hell. Markson smashed many foes with his mighty Mordenkrad. Thus the party cleaned house and left none alive.

After searching the gazebo, the party found set of steps that lead into the bowels of the earth. The party, not lacking in adventuring spirit, ventured down into the deep. Their curiosity was repaid with fierce battle again nasty Tieflings and deadly ice hounds which literately burst upon the seen, straight up through the icy floor. The party feared not and beat them all to death. Not without trouble though, Markson was harried by the Tieflings. They tried to knock him into a pit; the wily Markson would have none of it, teleporting himself out of danger.

Upon further examination of the lair, after the battle, the party found a pile of gold, jewels, armor, and some potions to remove the petrifaction effects on Draya and Fein. The party rejoiced. Lord Ord said his goodbyes and returned to his home world.